Thank you for stopping in with words of encouragement and a hug and a what-the-heck comment. And thanks for the emails and words of support.

And…

please don’t stop patronizing a business because of one person’s mistake.

If you already were a customer of the place, liked the food and service and atmosphere and whatever… please please please still patronize it.

—————————————

Today, I was approached by one of our local newspapers who was asking for a comment about this “story” and I knew that publishing something in the paper would be a huge mistake. It’s not that newsworthy, for one. And for two, who suffers for it?

If I screwed up and made a stupid mistake in judgement, my employees have nothing to do with it and shouldn’t be penalized for it.

My response when questioned today reiterated such:

Mr. *** is a partner in the business. His silent partner is a well-respected and liked business person in the community (he also owns ***).

The BTC also employs over 30 people. It doesn’t seem fair that the actions of Mr. *** should trickle down and have a negative effect on those who rely on their jobs at the BTC.

The employees of the BTC use their paychecks locally at other businesses, including mine. They pay their bills and feed their families with those paychecks. If customers choose to not patronize the BTC, I would rather it be for their own personal affront instead of as retribution on behalf of the restaurants targeted by Mr. ***.

It’s not that big a deal, now that we all know. The gig is up. The cat is out of the bag.

He made a huge boo-boo and people are mad, but at least it’s all out in the open.

And here’s a way to spin it into something helpful:

We will all now be skeptical when it comes to anonymous “reviews”.

Us restaurant owners will still read the comments left for us on Yelp, TripAdvisor, UrbanSpoon (and whatever other “review” site pops up in the future)… and we will immediately act on constructive criticism.

And non-restaurant owners who have read this story will now know to take the “reviews” on the internet with a virtual grain of salt.

A big, huge, gnarly grain of salt.

——————————————–

Final words on this subject for me:

A fire was set, and those who were burned fought back.

But throwing gas on the fire isn’t going to help anyone nearby. It will create a town of ashes and animosity, and that would be pretty dumb considering how great a place it is that we live in.